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 | August 2005 |  |
August 2005 Archived News
News August 31 2005
My daughter's named Katrina - coincidence?
Wow - now THAT is cool. There's a news post on Bungie.net's front page, exhorting fans to do what they can to help in the disaster relief effort to clean up after Hurricane Katrina. When was the last time you saw a videogame developer suggest to its fans that helping others in a time of need is a worthwhile endeavor? (It is, by the way - and we'd like to second Bungie's suggestions. I just put my money where my mouth is on the Red Cross donation page... you should think about it, too.) Thanks to Anton P. Nym for noticing. Update: SketchFactor has added a link to a Bungie.net forum thread - he's looking for stories from community members about what they're doing to help. Check it out! Update 2: Knaabi, from 2old2play, pointed out a thread on their forum, where they've got a Paypal link for donating to hurricane relief charities. This might be easier for some of you without credit cards, but with Paypal accounts... (Louis Wu 17:44:27 UTC) (permalink)
I wanna see the mark of shame.
How seriously do you take YOUR Halo 2 clan? el Lobo furtivo, a member of the PraetoriaGuard, went a bit farther than I would, I think. THAT is hardcore. (Let's hope he doesn't find a new clan anytime soon.) Thanks, HymnToNinkasi. (Louis Wu 03:10:13 UTC) (permalink)
I'm hiding. How about you?
Penny Arcade's comic for today (which doesn't have a news post yet, frighteningly enough), involves Gus and Burnie from Red vs Blue (who spent the weekend at the Penny Arcade Expo)... and some stuff that probably shouldn't be seen. Only peripherally Halo-related... but, well... I couldn't pass it up. Thanks, Max. (Louis Wu 03:01:56 UTC) (permalink)
Pinker Than A Baby's Bum
You might remember Archie Gates - he's a Gamespot user who has created a number of songs dedicated to the beauty and grace of the Needler. He's done it again - a couple of days ago, he posted Needler Song 4, 'Don't Know Why (It's My Favorite Gun)'. Norah Jones might take issue with it... but everyone else should find it hilarious. And the bit at the end... is brilliant. You can grab a copy off our server (3.5 mb)... listen and enjoy. Thanks to Atsumi for noticing this! (Louis Wu 02:52:53 UTC) (permalink)
News August 30 2005
Remaining MMP maps now freely available
Major Nelson posted a note on his blog a few hours ago stating that the remaining maps from the Multiplayer Map Pack will be free to all Xbox Live subscribers by 5 pm ET today (that's in 10 minutes) - if you haven't grabbed 'em yet, go get 'em now! Thanks, Mintz. (Louis Wu 20:49:56 UTC) (permalink)
Coming Soon - A Thumb President
Over on Slate, there's an article called 'The Gaming Graybeards' - a pair of thirtysomethings give Halo 2 on Xbox Live a try (I think they were both totally new to the game AND the service, though one continued AFTER that first session), and write about their experiences. Alternately funny and excruciatingly painful. (Louis Wu 20:19:29 UTC) (permalink)
Not2old2type
2old2play cranks out the news today - Episode 8 (with coverage, to some degree, of the Xbox360) is now available for download, and they're gearing up for Episode 9, which will feature Xbox.com's Major Nelson (you can submit questions ahead of time). They've also written up an article reviewing Apple's iPod and providing a tutorial for using iTunes to subscribe to the 2old2type podcast. Go visit and learn. (Louis Wu 19:10:37 UTC) (permalink)
Community Building
Hong Kong Soupy points out an article on Zondaro.net about what it takes to interface with a fan community. The Bungie.net website is held up as a great example of what a developer can do to keep their fans coming back. (HKS was a little annoyed that fansites were left out of this equation entirely... but then, the market for the article was originally developers - and developers don't run fansites.) (Louis Wu 15:20:06 UTC) (permalink)
Twelve Year Olds on a Sugar Rush
Ducain has posted his own writeup of the Suffer THIS! LAN held at Chez Chavez this weekend. Pictures, impressions, and the occasional unnecessary dig at a teammate who made an honest mistake... a great read. (Louis Wu 12:46:51 UTC) (permalink)
Bow chicka bowwow...
Red vs Blue Episode 58 has officially kicked off Season 4 - it's now online for both sponsors (in Hi-res) and the general public (in low-res). Caboose is smarter than he looks. (Not much, but...) And Tucker... Tucker shows his true colors. 4:22, a great start to the season. 10 - 43.5 mb, depending on flavor. (Louis Wu 12:24:07 UTC) (permalink)
News August 29 2005
Never say die -erm, quit
These guys are nuts. (I admire their sticktoitiveness, but man... I wouldn't have had the patience. Life's too short - I'd rather be playing games I LIKE.) (Louis Wu 21:42:51 UTC) (permalink)
HCEC 17: Prelude
Dennis Powers writes that the Halo CE Chronicles Episode 17 - Prelude - has been posted. The search and rescue team looking for our Station Commander is about to come under attack from well-armed Covenant forces... the stage is set for some great action. Qucktime (20 mb), WMP9 (22 mb), or streaming Flash (8 mb) formats, all downloadable from the video archive. (Louis Wu 20:32:11 UTC) (permalink)
Broken Record
Mercury has weighed in with his own opinion on the recent 1Up article - you can find his thoughts on The Oracle, his blog. I guess the 1Up writer did it right, after all - I can't remember the last time an article there got this much of the fan community up in arms. (Louis Wu 18:53:12 UTC) (permalink)
Can't be all bad.
As has been mentioned a few times recently, a lengthy LANfest (6 days now, sort of, and counting) has been going on involving some community regulars. The first real writeup got posted to our forum a little bit ago - Stuntmutt, taking a page from Tolstoy's playbook, wrote a monster of a reminiscence of the trip so far. (I must say, I've been maligned. Possibly justifiably... but maligned nonetheless. Pistols at dawn, sir.) It's a great read, whether you were there or not - it sums up some of the high points of the event really nicely. (Pisses me off - he nailed pretty much every single point I wanted to cover in my OWN writeup. I may just have to admin his post and put my name on it.) Check it out. (Louis Wu 18:04:55 UTC) (permalink)
c0ld, Hard Cash.
Today's One One Se7en suggests a feasible way for certain Halo clans to make a little money. Go, Helljumpers. (Louis Wu 15:36:21 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Fiction
Twelve new stories posted today in the Fan Fiction section - busy weekend for the writers! Go read. (Louis Wu 15:19:45 UTC) (permalink)
Briar's Armor - finished!
Remember Briar's Armor? (We've mentioned them a few times.) The Master Chief armor is finished - and tonight we got a pair of images in our inbox. Gorgeous work! Full body shot (343K) | closeup (296K) (Louis Wu 04:34:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Pro Roundup
3Suns sent in a roundup of pro-level Halo news articles from around the net:
- From Team3D.net - Ogre 2 won a car playing Halo 2
- From HaloPro.com - Team 3D's Hotshy (Walshy) interviewed
- From Team3D.com - Team 3D won VGL regional NY a few weeks ago
- From MLGPro.com - IGS Monglers take first at MLG Nashville
Some of these might be a bit old - but they're all unreported here. (Louis Wu 04:09:59 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Episode 6
Podtacular Episode 6 has been posted - 90 minutes long, highlight is an interview with Overswarm, the author of the Not So Common Sense strategy guide hosted right here. Thanks, henry brown. (Louis Wu 03:54:59 UTC) (permalink)
Broken Halo - or Whiny Writer?
Last night, Ename Nep pointed out an article over at 1Up.com, entitled 'Broken Halo: Five ways Bungie can fix Halo 2'. It's nothing that hasn't been said a thousand times before on Halo forums the whole 'net round... what makes this somewhat surprising is the fact that it shows up, in this form, on a site like 1Up. (I'll say right now that my respect for their journalistic integrity has dropped a notch or two because of this article.) It's full of absurd absolute statements ("Since the rockets on Coagulation don't respawn when someone is holding them, the Banshee pilot (unless he's maladroit) is invincible") and faulty logic ("Because there is a singular power weapon on Colossus with no counterpart, even shoddily organized teams can get a beam rifle, use it to get a fast lead, and then hold the beam rifle with a couple shots left in it for the rest of the round and use their lead to win") - it's so strident in its tired arguments that even the decent suggestions (I liked the idea of retaining Halo's plasma pistol overheating-after-an-overcharge feature, which would have toned down the hard-to-counter PP/BR combo) are lost in the rhetoric. Cody Miller pointed to a Slashdot poster's summary of this article that nailed the problem quite nicely. (Louis Wu 03:32:52 UTC) (permalink)
News August 28 2005
Corpseguy's finished helmet
Last month, we mentioned a helmet being created by corpseguy - I noticed today over at HaloPlanet that he's posted a bunch of photos of the finished product. It looks great! Check it out. (Louis Wu 21:30:12 UTC) (permalink)
Gamecloud from PAX
A message came in yesterday morning that got missed - Gamecloud has coverage from the Penny Arcade Expo in Seattle; you'll be able to watch the episode of Red vs Blue that showed there Friday night (and at Lincoln Center in New York a week ago) at RvB's site tomorrow, but today you can read about the discussion that was held after the showing. Additionally, there are a few photo galleries from the Expo (here, here, and here) - only a small portion is Halo-related, but you can get a good flavor for the goings-on. Thanks, John Callaham. (Louis Wu 20:57:58 UTC) (permalink)
Even More Montages
Two different montages (both hosted over at halo2forum.com) were posted on our forum today - SWAT Halo69's 7th Montage and Halzred's Montage 3. They just keep coming... (Louis Wu 20:35:20 UTC) (permalink)
Now THAT is amazing.
We've mentioned the Twin Galaxies Legendary Run competition a couple of times before - yesterday, Cody Miller posted on our forum that he'd completed the challenge: Halo 2 on Legendary, with no deaths. All I can say is... wow. Read his post for details. (Louis Wu 19:50:25 UTC) (permalink)
LAN Of The Free.
One last thing before I hit the road - Stuntmutt created a special Sunday One One Se7en to commemorate his favorite moments of his trip to the US. We wish him all the best getting back home. (Louis Wu 06:15:04 UTC) (permalink)
And to all, a good night.
The lanfest that has been going on here for a few days will continue for a day or more to come - but unfortunately, it will do so without me. I need to head home to be with my family and responsibilities... but there was a game tonight that was notable for its competitors; we saved two screens, a pre-game screen (100K) and a post-game screen (86K). (This will only have relevance to folks who visit our forum occasionally.) I've said it before and I'll say it again - Halo 2 plus good friends plus many hours of gameplay equals some of the most fun you can have with your clothes on. (Even if you're wearing a pink shirt.) (Louis Wu 06:12:32 UTC) (permalink)
News August 27 2005
Suffer THIS!
That's pretty much the end of updating for the day. An internationally-attended lanfest (notables include Stuntmutt, c0ld vengeance, BOLL, and Canada's Anton P. Nym, as well as US-based folks like Ducain, Warbow, and Shishka) kicks into full gear - it's been going for a while now, but the largest number of attendees will be here today. A game of folks who wanted to make it, but couldn't, was played yesterday - hats off. We'll be back in full swing updating tomorrow - for now, enjoy your Saturday! (Louis Wu 15:42:59 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 5
Podtacular! has posted Episode 5 of their Halo 2 podcast - Warlock and custom gametypes head the topics of this hour and a half audio blog. Thanks, Kaizer Bun. (Louis Wu 15:10:37 UTC) (permalink)
Rendered Chief
Wow, very cool. Chris Bryan has posted a couple of new renders from his upcoming reel - you can see them here and here. Gorgeous! (Louis Wu 14:53:37 UTC) (permalink)
WaLKa Montage Preview
WaLKa put together a preview for a new montage - sticks, snipes, sword kills, Halo and Halo 2. Nice to see footage that combines the games! You can find a download link on our forum, and another (larger by far) thread about the vid over at Halo2Forum.com (thanks, Z). 62 mb, MPEG-2 format. (Louis Wu 14:02:42 UTC) (permalink)
Bijou? Like the theater?
The Weekly What's Update is now posted at Bungie.net - info about PAX, info about the new playlists coming out in the next couple of weeks, a larger version of Mike Hill's amazing warthog pic we posted this morning, and a really, really scary pic of Mister Chief in a speedo. (Blame DanteThePoet if your eyes bleed.) (Louis Wu 00:40:06 UTC) (permalink)
News August 26 2005
Can't Touch This.
A movie called 'Untouchable', by TheHaloGod, cleared our Movie Peer Review Rating System this morning, with a pretty unprecedented score. It's a montage vid - but the timing is simply astounding, and the music choice is great. As luck would have it, I'm not anywhere near home today (nor will I be for the next couple of days), so the tools available for multiple formats are not what they should be. We're offering the original WMP9 version, 44.7 mb - quality is fantastic. We're also offering a somewhat larger, somewhat lower-quality QuickTime version (49.2 mb) - it's still quite watchable, but not as beautiful as the WMP9. I'd point out the spots that made us all go 'OMG' - but they're more fun to experience on your own. Even if you're pretty jaded with respect to montages, this is worth watching. (Louis Wu 19:55:50 UTC) (permalink)
You drive the warthog, I'll shoot.
Recently, Red vs Blue enhanced their website with a 'Featured User' option - each day, a different member is chosen, and people get to meet someone they might otherwise have overlooked in this community of thousands. Not long ago, one of these Featured Users was Elnea, an eye surgeon who enjoys playing Halo with her son. Exploring her RvB space, I found that she's quite an artist - with a style I really enjoy. She was kind enough to allow us to spotlight her work here - so check out the Art of Elnea, a page that will grow as time goes along. (Louis Wu 15:50:01 UTC) (permalink)
Karl Friedrich... Uh...
Too many people can't pronounce important words - it's Stuntmutt to the rescue. Today's One One Se7en is brought to you by the word Gauss and the Number 7. (Louis Wu 15:10:58 UTC) (permalink)
He's gonna need some buffing...
We got an art submission this morning that blew me away - I'm not going to have time to process the Miscellaneous Art queue right now, but I thought this should make it out into the community. Mike Hill put together a gorgeous action shot (347K) showing the Master Chief making use of that Warthog winch. He promises more in the future - I'm looking forward to it! (Louis Wu 15:08:11 UTC) (permalink)
100
Halo Babies has hit 100! The current strip is a lot of fun - and has spawned three new desktops besides. Go read! (Louis Wu 14:08:54 UTC) (permalink)
News August 25 2005
The Dolls Want More
Looks like the Frag Dolls are recruiting - they're looking for one more member, and will be vetting people at the Penny Arcade Expo this weekend outside Seattle. Details can be found at eToychest - thanks, Rampancy.net. (Louis Wu 14:11:46 UTC) (permalink)
Cash. Cold, Hard, Cash.
GameDaily has an article discussing Halo 2's moneymaking power - almost 200,000 copies of the Multiplayer Map Pack were bought in its first month on the market. (It's unknown how many have been sold as direct downloads from Xbox Live.) Some of the numbers in the article are suspect; they list 4.7 million total sales for Halo 2, when the numbers were above 6 million in April... but overall, it's a pretty interesting read. (Halo 2 has been the most-played Xbox Live title every week it's been on the market - even today, 9 months after release.) (Louis Wu 11:18:50 UTC) (permalink)
Where the cash is coming from
The World Cyber Games announced sponsors yesterday - and the US National Final will take place in New York in two weeks. 40,000 players competed in the US in preliminary events - 186 are in the finals. Of those, 16 will continue on to Singapore to compete for a $400,000 prize pool in the Grand Final - 16 of 800 gamers, pared down from a total of one million, worldwide, this year. Big numbers! (Louis Wu 11:07:18 UTC) (permalink)
Thursday's Texts
Fourteen new pieces for you in the Fan Fiction section today - go read! (Louis Wu 10:57:23 UTC) (permalink)
Dyslexia talks to IGS
Over at MLGPro.com, there's an interview with IGS (well, half of them), discussing their loss to TmG in Las Vegas, and playing in general. Entertaining read - check it out! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 10:46:41 UTC) (permalink)
The Babies Get Smaller.
Halo Babies has reformatted its site to fit comfortably on the screen of the Sony PSP - go read about this at the main site, or visit HBabies.net to see it! Gotta love it. (Louis Wu 10:43:02 UTC) (permalink)
Lost Stratosphere Ep 2: Aftermath
A couple of days ago, the MPRRS processed the second episode in Final Supremacy's Lost Stratosphere series. It failed - because one of the reviewers decided that the download took too long. Since this is an absurd criterion for a failing grade, I've overridden the score - and the movie is available to you in either QuickTime (38.6 mb) or WMP9 (37.5 mb) formats. It advances the existing storyline of Episode 1 - humans are in a dire situation! Go watch. (Louis Wu 10:32:26 UTC) (permalink)
Delta Blow.
Dang. In the craziness that was yesterday, I didn't get around to posting Wednesday's One One Se7en - which means you missed some classic corn. Apologies. (Louis Wu 10:20:16 UTC) (permalink)
News August 24 2005
Trick This.
Got a trick you want the community to know about? Head on over to High Impact Halo. Yeah, that part has been true since Halo 2 was released, and before... but they've put a new Trick Review System online, and it has the potential to vastly reduce the clutter that keeps some tricks from being noticed, while keeping things organized and easy-to-find. It will also reduce the workload on HIH staff required to identify new tricks, allowing newsposting to happen more easily - which will likely translate to more fun stuff MAKING it to the front page. Inspired by (but in no way based on, codewise - this puppy's completely original to HIH) our Movie Peer Review Rating System, the TRS promises to help tricksters and fans alike - go check it out! (Louis Wu 15:08:04 UTC) (permalink)
Prometheus Update 4
Prometheus, the multiversion Halo model manipulator/editor, has a new update online. They've lost scripting support (their scripter has left the team because of problems with the CE community), but there's plenty of good stuff left. Screenshots and descriptions will give you a taste for what's coming - go read! (Louis Wu 14:54:42 UTC) (permalink)
Just Shameless
retsamolah put together another montage vid; I'm sure it will earn the scorn of TRUE masters, because there are a couple of times when he actually takes 3 shots to no-scope the enemy (and because he uses the dreaded n00b combo to get a triple kill or two), but some of the sticks have to be seen to be believed. All footage collected in the last few nights - vid is 65.5 mb, QuickTime format. The downside: there's only one jump-to-the-death-off-Lockout this time around, and it's not even KP. Nice gameplay set to great music (though not timed to it) - a fun watch. (Louis Wu 13:17:39 UTC) (permalink)
TMG talks trade
Over at MLGPro.com, there's an interview with TMG, formerly Str8 Rippin, conducted after MLG Las Vegas. They talk about how good it feels to be on top (heh), and focus a lot on the rivalry with iGameSpot, the team they beat to win MLG Las Vegas. Nice read! Thanks, Arachneya and 3Suns. (Louis Wu 05:02:17 UTC) (permalink)
Before Halo
The Escapist has written up a nice-looking article showing the evolution of Bungie's FPS space opera from Marathon to Halo. A few factoids left me shaking my head... but all in all, a good read. Thanks to stosh, at Bungie.net, for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 04:50:03 UTC) (permalink)
RvB Firefox Toolbar
And1balla2829 writes to point out (in a post on the RvB forum, registration required) that he's created an RvB Firefox toolbar - contains tons of mini-buttons for the best movie/machinima/Halo 2 sites, plus news feed menus and a ticker from Rooster Teeth, and more. Here's a small screenshot to show you what you'd be getting. (Louis Wu 04:46:57 UTC) (permalink)
No Strategic Imperatives
Okay, this is weird. Over at Channel 9, a Microsoft programming site, there's a video series following their mascot (think Jack-in-the-Box, writ large) on the way to a developers conference. The current episode (download is 14.8 mb, WMP9 format) has the 9 guy picking up Sarge, from Red vs Blue - I'd go nuts if that guy got in MY car. Thanks, Eric Smith. (Louis Wu 04:40:03 UTC) (permalink)
Limbless in Los Angeles
Stubbs the Zombie is getting some good coverage these days - Gamespot has a video interview with Tim Attuquayefio, Director of QA for Aspyr, discussing gameplay, and an updated hands-on (thanks, Narcogen at Rampancy.net), and CVG has a text interview with Matt Soell, the game's writer, looking at Stubbs' origin, some of the ways the Wideload team enhanced the Halo engine for the game, and more (thanks, 3Suns). Go check 'em all! (Louis Wu 04:33:40 UTC) (permalink)
News August 23 2005
Montage Mania
Got mail from Z, over at halo2forum.com - tons for you to watch. Their Montage Contest 2 videos have been revealed - there are lots of them. Then, there's a montage trailer from magnum 9er. Finally, there's some pro-level gaming, wherein the Str8 Rippin crew loses. Go download! (Louis Wu 17:24:32 UTC) (permalink)
Good ta see ya, Joe.
Awesomeness. There's a great article over at Bungie.net, written by Joe Staten, who's been pretty off-the-radar these past few months - it looks at the origins of the Halo movie script, and how the situation developed to where it stands today. There's even a sneak peek at the 'companion', a jazzed-up "universe bible/style-guide" that is intended to keep the filmmakers on the right track. (No, you can't buy one.) Go read this if you have any doubts about the outcome of the Halo movie. (You should STILL have doubts after you read it - you should have doubts until you see it on-screen, because otherwise you're setting yourself up for potential sadness - but you should feel much more assured after reading Joe's writeup.) Oh, yeah - and this is part 1. Thanks, LegendaryMark. (Louis Wu 17:09:03 UTC) (permalink)
Movie Details Surface
A new article in Variety contains details about the Halo movie deal - the highlights are that Fox and Universal will pay Microsoft $5 million against 10% of the movie's gross, that Microsoft is "guaranteed extensive consultation on the project, but won't have approval over any elements", and that the final product will hit the big screen during the summer of 2007. (Thanks, Ian White.) (Louis Wu 12:43:42 UTC) (permalink)
A visit from the Master Chief
Over at Tied the Leader, XerxdeeJ has recorded a fascinating interview with Steve Downes, better known to Halo fans as the voice of Master Chief. It's a phone interview, and it touches on many subjects, from Steve's gaming history to voiceover acting politics to speculation about the Halo movie (and the possibility of Steve's involvement in it)... great stuff. It comes in three pieces, each 2-3 mb, mp3 format - go listen! (Louis Wu 06:54:00 UTC) (permalink)
Look - I messed in my pants!
Captain Spark posted another 30 dialogue snippets - all Johnson and Stacker. (He's worried, though - he might be getting to the end of the line.) You can grab them from his website, zipped, or browse them in our Dialogue Databank. (Louis Wu 00:09:47 UTC) (permalink)
Launch Line Ep 1 - Blood Gulch
Wow. TheGhost posted a vid on our forum - he's modified multiplayer grenades in HaloCE to act a lot like campaign grenades... and he uses them to perform some amazing launches on Blood Gulch. I liked this so much I'm hosting both his original WMP9 version (26.4 mb), and a new QT version (27.4 mb). Grab this and be amazed. I was. (Louis Wu 00:05:21 UTC) (permalink)
Triple Kill.
Funky - EB Games is gearing up to sell the Halo Triple Pack - Halo, Halo 2, and the Multiplayer Map Pack, all in one $60 box. Goes on sale in about 2 months. You ask me, they should have done that LONG ago. Thanks, Josh Eppert. (Louis Wu 00:04:43 UTC) (permalink)
Free Video Host at Halo Bunker
Christopher "Master Chief" Thomas wrote to point out Halo Bunker, a new halo-oriented video host; they'd love to help you get your content to the Halo community. Check out this forum post, sign up, and start uploading! (Louis Wu 00:03:59 UTC) (permalink)
HCEC Ep 16: Harmony
Dennis Powers wrote to point out that The Halo CE Chronicles Episode 16, Harmony, has been released - the action heats up, and a long-time plot mystery has been cleared up. Go watch! WMP9 (25.4 mb), QuickTIme (29.9 mb), and streaming Flash (9 mb) formats. (Louis Wu 00:03:14 UTC) (permalink)
Another Halo Community Toolbar
Paradox pointed out that there's a new community bar for Halo - it allows searching with Seeker and HaloWiki. (It also pulls in the HBO RSS feed...) Give it a look! Requires Firefox and Windows. (Louis Wu 00:02:54 UTC) (permalink)
2old2type ep 7: A little late
Thanks to DSmooth, who pointed out Episode 7 of 2old2type, 2old2play.com's bi-weekly podcast. This one is about an hour long, weighs in at 28 mb in mp3 format, and covers their recent lanfest, as well as upcoming stuff and other stuff. And stuff. (They're also finally on iTunes, so you can subscribe from there.) Go listen! (I wish the volume had been punched up a bit...) (Louis Wu 00:02:09 UTC) (permalink)
Resolute 16: GT... Hey!
Been out all day... get ready for a flood of news! We'll get started with the funnies... ÜberChief posted Episode 16 of his Resolute comic - a perfect example of how unstressed people can be until THEIR stuff gets trashed. (Louis Wu 00:01:44 UTC) (permalink)
News August 22 2005
Can It.
Stuntmutt puts forth an alternate speculation for why a couple of the Halo 2 characters ended up working together in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 14:04:31 UTC) (permalink)
HollywoodHalo Update 7
HollywoodHalo's Update 7 passed our MPRRS last night - go watch this for updates on sites like Bungie.net and High Impact Halo. The Pumpkin stuff is a little... odd. Go watch! Just over 30 mb, in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats. (Louis Wu 13:49:06 UTC) (permalink)
Killikatari, baby.
A couple of days ago, Eisen Feuer posted a bunch of dialogue snippets to our forum - high-quality recordings of the various multiple-kill announcements in multiplayer. We've finally added them to our Dialogue Databank - one that doesn't show up in that link is 'Un-Freakin-Believable' which was in the databank before, but in a much lower-quality recording. These are good enough for use in machinima projects, I'd say... (Louis Wu 12:23:49 UTC) (permalink)
This Spartan Life Bodyguard Contest
This Spartan Life is hosting a Halo competition on XBL today, at 1pm, EST (that's a bit less than 5 hours from now). The winner will become a semi-regular character on the popular show, as Damian's bodyguard. Competitors must be 18 or older, and clearly you must also have access to XBL (and a broadband connection). Full explanations and rules can be found in this post on their forum (registration required to see it). They need email ahead of time - so if you're interested, sign up and read the post to see what needs to go into it! (Louis Wu 12:09:56 UTC) (permalink)
Nephrons - Minus Five
The next episode of Nephrons ('Nephrons - Minus Five') has been released by ChairLeg Productions - and it's passed our Movie Peer Review Rating System. You can grab it in PSP-friendly form (368x208, 16.2 mb, MP4 encoding), directly from their site... or in PC-friendly form (standard 640x480 formats) from us; WMP9 format is 44.3 mb, QuickTime format is 40.6 mb. In their words, "a variety of unusual subjects such as thumbscrews and Walrus Kings but still no actual on screen bullets....yet." Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:04:30 UTC) (permalink)
Perfect cutscene - in HaloCE
The HaloCE community continues advancing the product - Wave of Lag points out a thread on the Gearbox forum where The Ghost demos the first cutscene in the Maw, completely rendered in HaloCE. (HaloCE was released as multiplayer-only; there was no explicit support for campaign play. That didn't stop these guys, though.) Looks like custom single-player maps aren't that far off! (Louis Wu 11:52:20 UTC) (permalink)
News August 21 2005
The Squadron, Ep 3 posted
Broken Console has posted Episode 3 of The Squadron - it's called 'Dinosaurs and Clones'. Pretty nice work, overall! You can grab a WMP9 version (22.6 mb) at their site... and we're hosting a QuickTime version (21.6 mb) for them (because AnubisUK disappeared before he could get it linked on his own site). Comments can go in AnubisUK's thread on our forum. Update: The QuickTime is now at their site, as well. (Louis Wu 14:00:11 UTC) (permalink)
1Up Takes the New Maps Apart
1Up has posted a review of the Multiplayer Map Pack. Well, it's more than that, really - it's an 11-page-long strategy guide, with general gameplay tips, weapon respawn times, video clips, map-specific strategies... pretty impressive across the board. Thanks to Sabata for the heads-up on our forum. (Louis Wu 13:30:27 UTC) (permalink)
RoP - Voting Booth is Open
Voting is now open to the public in the third annual "Rockets on Prisoner" awards - swing by the site, and vote for your favorite films of the past year! Thanks to That Weasel for all his hard work in making this happen. (Louis Wu 12:54:16 UTC) (permalink)
halo2.junk.ws - lots of stats
Very nice - oil writes to point out that his stat tracking site has been updated; you should go visit! I checked it out, and it calculates a LOT of stuff. Comments can go in this forum post by DRT 117. (Louis Wu 12:39:01 UTC) (permalink)
News August 20 2005
NSCS - Updated
Overswarm is back from summer break, with a bunch of new goodies for you in the Not So Common Sense Strategy Guide; if you head to the Articles and Extras section, you'll find two new pieces - one points out some of the LESS-desirable playstyles out there (try not to fall into one of these categories), the other looks at specific gametypes, and the strategies that might help you improve your game at them. In the Movies and Commentary section, there's a new Advanced Vehicle Guide, this one covering Scorpions and Wraiths - watch it to glean tips for better offensive (and defensive) use of these monsters. Go read! (Louis Wu 21:47:40 UTC) (permalink)
Coordinating a matchmade team
Another piece of Halowiki news... LegendaryMark has written up a useful article discussing how to make the most of a matchmade team, especially bigger ones. Sometimes the most frustrating thing is getting people to pay attention to you... this might help. Go read it! (Louis Wu 13:29:03 UTC) (permalink)
Perpetuating Stereotypes
Many people wrote in with news of Halo references in the movie 40 Year Old Virgin... I'm not sure that's a good thing or a bad one. I think Reinhard Mazariegos might have been first. (Louis Wu 13:20:49 UTC) (permalink)
Greasemonkey Web Linker
Wow. PEZ has adapted an existing script for Firefox that, when installed in your browser, will add links to any bungie.org or bungie.net page that contains keywords with corresponding pages on the Halowiki.net website. If this doesn't make a lot of sense, go read the page he's put up about it. I just installed the Greasemonkey plugin and his web linker script... and both Bungie.net and bungie.org just got a whole lot more linked for me. (The new links to halowiki content are differentiated from existing links by a dotted red underline - so you'll know which ones are ones we put there, and which ones are supplementary info.) Cool! (If you don't use Firefox - any platform - this is useless to you.) (Louis Wu 13:18:12 UTC) (permalink)
I'm not sure if 'snow' is the right modifier...
There's a writeup of a custom gametype called 'Snowball' over at Geezer Gamers; it's a little like Zombies, but not really. The thing that makes it... well, odd is the requirement of teabagging your opponent. (You have to.) It's a funny writeup for a somewhat unique gametype - go check it out! (Thanks again, 3Suns.) (Louis Wu 00:39:22 UTC) (permalink)
It's money I just haven't won back yet.
Dyslexia has written up a post-mortem of the MLG Las Vegas event - it's a fun read. Oh, the mixing of gambling and pro Halo... thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 00:32:11 UTC) (permalink)
OMG MISTERCHIEF IS A HOUSE OMG
The Weekly What's Update has been posted; there's info about the upcoming free release of all maps that are currently not free (and you should definitely download them soon after August 30, because they WILL be integrated into all playlists; if you don't have 'em, you don't play), and info about Kirkland, where the Bungie team is moving to (apparently, the other game developers complained about the smell so much that Microsoft moved them several miles away). And there's a link to Aaron Walpole's Canadian Idol page - he's in the top 5 now (this was mentioned by D-Man earlier today, but I passed on it because it's not really Halo news... but since it's in the WWU...). And there's a mister chief picture that just creeps me out. Go read. (Louis Wu 00:28:57 UTC) (permalink)
News August 19 2005
Bballplaya12's Montage 2
Z points out a new montage, from Bballplaya12, over on Halo2Forum.com. 64 mb, WMP9 format. Lots and lots of sticks and snipes. Good timing, and some of the sticks (especially the ones on Lockout) are pretty impressive. Go grab a copy! (Louis Wu 19:30:27 UTC) (permalink)
Baby Boom Boom.
One One Se7en, at a loss for its own content, sucked in Halo Babies today. Poor Baby MC... (Louis Wu 16:19:22 UTC) (permalink)
Homertage
DarqKnyght created a spoof montage - ever wonder what it would sound like if Homer Simpson played Xbox Live? Wonder no more! Timing is beautiful, and there were several laugh-out-loud clip choices (for me, at least). Warning ahead of time: anyone who chooses to denigrate the actual gameplay shown ("those weren't very impressive kills") on our forum will be mocked mercilessly by me - this montage is NOT about the masterful play, it's about the great matchup between gameplay and Simpson snippets. Go watch - it's funny. 34.4 mb, in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats. (Louis Wu 15:44:09 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fic
Twelve new pieces in the Fan Fiction section today, including the Noob Diary entries that made the front page of B.net a couple of days ago, some intriguing poems, and more. Go read! (Louis Wu 15:20:26 UTC) (permalink)
Voice Acting Needed
Pvt. Jenkins posted a note on our forum - he's looking for a 'manly voice' for his Flash movie. The movie itself is done - all that's needed is the audio. (This makes a project like this much more promising than, say, "I'm really interested in making a Halo movie - who's with me?") Read the post, see if you meet the requirements (no, Jilly, you don't) - drop him some email! (Louis Wu 14:27:50 UTC) (permalink)
Barney Just Wants a Hug
drumyouaway submitted a trailer for Barney Just Wants a Hug to the MPRRS - and though a few people were unhappy with the aspect ratio of some of the footage, it passed the system, and so we're hosting it for you to see. Short, odd... sort of like my kids. WMP9 (7.6 mb) or QuickTime (7.1 mb) formats. (Louis Wu 14:04:54 UTC) (permalink)
Temp bans for modders' friends
There's another piece on Bungie.net that should be read by everyone who plays Halo 2 on Xbox Live; apparently, the've started to run queries on their game database, looking not for modders, but for players who've played 'a significant number of games with modders'. Yesterday, they temp-banned a few thousand of them - and the next time won't be temporary. This doesn't mean you should panic if you find yourself in a game with a modder; one is not a 'significant number of games'. It DOES mean that if you're doing a lot of custom gaming, and your friends are modders... you might find yourself banned, even though you don't mod. Worth thinking about! Update: Sketchfactor dropped by our forum to clarify that the current tempban was only for people who were playing with modders in Matchmaking - not custom games. (There was some apprehension that you could get banned from matchmaking by inadvertently playing in custom games with modders.) He certainly did not rule out the possibility that playing with modders in custom games might, at some point, get you banned from matchmaking - but right now, they're focusing on matchmaking primarily. (Louis Wu 12:42:13 UTC) (permalink)
Keeping his lady in a bottle
Yesterday afternoon, Sketchfactor posted an interview with Major Nelson, Xbox Live Director of Programming, over at Bungie.net; read it to get a sense for what this guy does. There was a snippet that hinted at how much new info Live would be giving you about opponents once the 360 is released - I'm looking forward to that! (Louis Wu 12:37:58 UTC) (permalink)
Pecking Order
New comic up at Halo Babies - I gotta say, that's one fast-thinking grunt! There's also a reminder about the Red vs Blue Comic Contest, which ends in a couple of days. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 12:21:48 UTC) (permalink)
News August 18 2005
The beginning of something grand
I meant to post this yesterday, when she put it up on the forum... but real life has been getting in the way recently. Pinkuh revealed a sketch of an upcoming piece of work she's making for the Team Schooly D clan - we've added it to her art page. (It's the one dated '18 August'.) Enjoy! (Louis Wu 19:18:10 UTC) (permalink)
Logo-fied.
The High Impact Halo logo contest has come to an end - you can see the winner (and a fine choice it is) on their front page. Congrats to T010! (And taking a page from the HollywoodHalo playbook, there is a Video Update summarizing the past week - multiple formats, 25-35 mb, depending... give it a watch!) (Louis Wu 14:46:28 UTC) (permalink)
He is smitten.
This Spartan Life has put up a new Video Blog - Episode 2 gets into the host's personal life (well, sort of). Scary. (Just hit the 'Blogs' link at the top to see it.) 5.4 mb, QuickTime format. Thanks to Squatting Bear, who pointed it out before it even showed up on the page. (Louis Wu 13:54:05 UTC) (permalink)
Fall of Reach looking for cast members
Eep - sometimes, time zones bite you. The Fall of Reach is filming today at 6:30 PM England time. (They sent along a link showing what time that is in the rest of the world.) Bottom line - it's less than four hours from when this news post is going up. If you're interested in helping, check this forum post for details on how to get in. But do it soon! (Louis Wu 13:47:55 UTC) (permalink)
News August 17 2005
When the old act young
Over at 2old2play, there's another writeup of last weekend's LAN activities - complete with pics and... scary descriptions. I dunno if I'm sad I missed it... or grateful. (Oh, yeah... and some questionable behavior - a site mod takes advantage of a site admin; WMP9 or QuickTime format (only about 350kb each). Hmm...) Thanks, doodi. (Louis Wu 20:23:08 UTC) (permalink)
Master Sheaf.
That Sarge - he's so cool, even when he's telling OLD jokes he sounds great. Check out today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 12:34:20 UTC) (permalink)
Amaroq Speaks
Hikaru writes that Halo Arena has posted an interview with Brian Towne, known online as Amaroq - the man behind mythica.org, a huge supplier of Halo-related bandwidth over the past few years. Check it out! (Louis Wu 12:08:02 UTC) (permalink)
A beta podcast
D-Man, DK, and trigger119 have teamed up to create their own Halo-based podcast; you can read about it in this post, but use this one for an updated (and working) download link. (Louis Wu 12:05:03 UTC) (permalink)
News August 16 2005
Podtacular! Ep 4
Podtacular! Episode 4 has been posted - this one's an hour and 15 minutes, so be sure you have a bit of free time for listening. They're currently 30th in iTunes' Top 100 Podcasts... pretty impressive! 26 mb, MP3 format. (Louis Wu 21:00:31 UTC) (permalink)
Machinima as a Money Machine
CNN has an article on machinima, and its potential as a new medium for Hollywood - Red vs Blue gets prominent mention. It's clear that many in Hollywood still don't get it:
"Hollywood looks to all kinds of places for a fan base and given the enormous success of video games, that's a natural place to look," said Jon Richmond, managing director of media and entertainment at Houlihan Lokey Howard & Zukin. "But 'Final Fantasy' was a movie based on video game technology and that was a whopping failure."
Excuse the banging noise - that's the sound of my head hitting the desk, over and over. Thanks to Germain Couët for the heads-up. (Louis Wu 20:25:24 UTC) (permalink)
What she does on her off-time...
Kelli 'Pinkuh' Washburn, one of our featured artists (you can find a link to her work in the short 'Hot Pages' menu to the right), whipped up a... somewhat risqué interpretation of Cortana yesterday - it's nothing you haven't seen on, say, Superbowl halftime shows, but it's definitely no longer G-rated. You can find this on her page here (it's currently the last image in the 'Completed Works' section), or at her DeviantART site. (The description there might explain where she was coming from on this one. Or then again... it might not.) (Louis Wu 16:27:36 UTC) (permalink)
Enough with the Killing...
Se7en found a fun little Flash animation by TheWax at DeviantART - a fusion of the Master Chief and Sonic the Hedgehog. (The Voice of God seems to be going soft...) (Louis Wu 15:28:52 UTC) (permalink)
The family that slays together, stays home
Hehe - Andras Ostrom found a tidbit at IMDB.com, blaming Halo 2 (and Netflix, but this is a Halo site, so we'll focus on that) for the downturn in moviegoing this summer. Darn that Bungie - keeping people at home! Update: Eep - Gregory Prill found the same info (but more fleshed out) in the Chicago Sun-Times. In fact - that's where imdb got it. (Louis Wu 13:42:36 UTC) (permalink)
Weezer notices a fan vid
A couple of weeks ago, a story circulated that the RIAA had shut down a site hosting fan-made videos because the music in them was unlicensed. It turned out that the cease-and-desist letter was forged... but in case anyone was really worried, you should check out Weezer's site; in a news post from a few days ago, they point out imSuck's Beverly Hills video (hosted here) - nice when the band whose music you're paying tribute to actually notices! Thanks to Ducain for pointing out Phantom's news post at High Impact Halo. (Louis Wu 01:11:02 UTC) (permalink)
What do I need to save against Brutes?
Remember that Microsoft survey we mentioned last week? In the latest Rumor Control article, Gamespot uses it as a jumping-off spot for wild speculation that Microsoft might be considering a 'strategy-based simulation game' centered on Halo. (Yeah, they say 'it's bogus' - but who came up with in the first place? THEY DID.) Thanks, KP. (Louis Wu 01:01:44 UTC) (permalink)
I need a bucket.
Okay, people do lots of things to get on the news page here... but the latest episode of Resolute is just... wrong. You should tell ÜberChief that. (Louis Wu 00:57:33 UTC) (permalink)
News August 15 2005
Conflict
The next chapter of the Halo CE Chronicles, Episode 15, Conflict, has been posted over at the HCEC website. The action heats up - an extraction goes bad, and the Spartan is left to fend for himself. As usual, it's available in WMP9, QuickTime, and streaming Flash formats. Go watch! (Louis Wu 21:22:39 UTC) (permalink)
What makes a great player?
Over at H2Wiki, there's a nice article from LegendaryMark entitled 'What makes a great Halo 2 Multiplayer Gamer?' As you might expect from the title, it looks at some of the things that make good gamers great - and points out why you might be stuck where you are, level-wise, until you rethink your gameplay strategies. Go read! (Louis Wu 20:30:05 UTC) (permalink)
A fan map pack review
ST stopped by our forum to point out an article on his blog about the Map Pack. The beautiful thing about the internet is the variety of perspectives... I was reading through his reasons for liking (or not liking) the maps, and I couldn't find a single one I fully agreed with. However, he did a great job of explaining WHY he holds the opinions he does - and it's clear to me that we just have very, very, VERY different playstyles (and likes). Go check it out - and give him your own opinions! (Louis Wu 19:09:24 UTC) (permalink)
New Threads.
Stuntmutt takes aim at the newest wearables in the Bungie Store in today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 15:27:56 UTC) (permalink)
Fiction Writers Quiet Over Weekend
Just six new entries in the Fan Fiction collection today - go see what's there! (Louis Wu 13:28:57 UTC) (permalink)
Stubbs - Coming Along!
Chris Remo, of Shacknews, got a chance to play a new iteration of Stubbs The Zombie, Wideload's Halo-engined undead romp, at QuakeCon this weekend. He'd been worried - he played it at GDC a few months ago, and had been disappointed. This time around, though, he had a lot of fun - go read why. Good to hear! Thanks to Rampancy.net for noticing this. (Louis Wu 11:32:57 UTC) (permalink)
Twenty Five Plus Outside... Fourteen Inside
The 2old2play LAN party we mentioned last month went down this past weekend - and by all accounts, it was a blast. (I ran into Doodi on XBL last night, and there should be some fun footage coming from it in the not-too-distant future.) XerxDeej was one of the attendees... and you can check out HIS experience on his Tied the Leader blog. (Louis Wu 11:19:33 UTC) (permalink)
TweakedDev goes a-huntin'
Another piece of Tina Leyk art surfaces - this one was a birthday present for a friend - his furry avatar, clothed in spartan armor. Fun! Check it out on her fan art page. (Louis Wu 02:03:17 UTC) (permalink)
Boy Scout Patches - Redux
A couple of weeks ago, we mentioned Halo patches from the Boy Scout National Jamboree - thanks to contractor, from Red vs Blue, who had a complete set, you can see what all three looked like. Nice! Update: DOH! I forgot to actually link to them. Sorry. (Louis Wu 00:34:17 UTC) (permalink)
News August 14 2005
MLG Las Vegas
If you head over to MLGPro.com, you'll find lots of results from MLG Las Vegas - looks like TmG Zyos won the free-for-all and TmG (Trademark Gamers, the newest iteration of Str8 Rippin) is set up against IgameSpot in the finals for the Winners bracket. (Team 3D, coming off their Philly loss, went to a World Cyber Games event this weekend instead.) There's tons more info - here's a full list of tidbits. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 20:29:04 UTC) (permalink)
Nephrons - Minus Six
Chairleg Productions came out of - well, pretty much nowhere a couple of days ago with their well-received Tale of Two Countries. Today, they're back, with another MPRRS-approved film, this one called 'Nephrons - Minus Six'. It's not yet Episode One, and indeed you will one day have the opportunity to meet a real-life Nephron... in the meantime, get acquainted with Jimmy, and the rest of the cast! WMP9 format (31 mb) or QuickTime format (28.4 mb). (Louis Wu 16:49:11 UTC) (permalink)
Burger Time? Eep.
MasterToad points out another Halo-related comic - the latest episode of Hypercombofinish looks at games in our future. (Louis Wu 15:28:30 UTC) (permalink)
A Sniper Shot Me
Patriarch917 has submitted what he thinks might be his final parody (at least for the time being) - he and his wife just had a second baby (check out the pic of Lily on his music page), and law school starts today. This one is called 'A Sniper Shot Me', and is a parody of Audio Adrenaline's Christian rock anthem 'Some kind of Zombie'. 6.6 mb, in MP3 format. Check it out! (Louis Wu 15:16:05 UTC) (permalink)
Lost Stratosphere Ep 1: The Fall of Eagle Base
Midnight Carnage, of the Final Supremacy team, submitted Lost Stratosphere Episode 1 to our Movie Peer Review Rating System a couple of days ago - they liked it... a lot. Go grab The Fall of Eagle Base, the first chapter in a Cov vs Human conflict machinima, in either WMP9 (50.9 mb) or Quicktime (50.7 mb) formats. (Louis Wu 14:24:21 UTC) (permalink)
OWNED!
Friday's PvP pointed out one of the more annoying types of Halo players - thanks, Rota Jota. (Louis Wu 14:20:17 UTC) (permalink)
Halo2Gametypes.com is now online
This went live a few days ago, but the primary domain name hadn't resolved when LordGideon pointed it out, so I decided to wait - then I forgot. Thanks to Manual, of PraetoriaGuard, for reminding me. Swing by Halo2Gametypes.com, a new website from the PraetoriaGuard clan (you can access their family of sites from their webring). This site is another storage repository for Halo 2 Gametypes (as the name might suggest) - the interface matches what you get when you're setting up a gametype in Halo 2, and the existing types can be rated by visitors. Use it to inspire you! (Louis Wu 13:54:18 UTC) (permalink)
Problems in Iraq - Halo addiction?
The New York Times has an article on how life is more cushy than expected for some GIs in Iraq - and Halo figures prominently. (Free registration required - or use bugmenot.com) Thanks, OP4 Trajan. (Louis Wu 13:45:05 UTC) (permalink)
Halo for the Age of Kings
Wonga. Took the day off yesterday... and the mailbox is flooded. Let's see what we can get through. First up: ZKP writes to say that he and a group of friends are making a Halo mod for Age of Kings: The Conquerers. You can find basic info on their website - I'm sure more info will be forthcoming. Halo - it's everywhere! (Louis Wu 13:40:15 UTC) (permalink)
News August 13 2005
The End of All Things
Episode 20 of the Codex, the final of the series, was released a few hours ago. It's currently only available in QuickTime, but WMP9 should be coming later today. Thirteen and a half minutes long, this is a fitting end to a spectacular series - plenty of action, drama, suspense... great filming, great overall production values. Check it out! While you're there, look around the site - it's been overhauled. Each video has its own page now (with much more info than before), and there's a new online store, selling t-shirts, and the Codex Soundtrack. (Louis Wu 12:28:00 UTC) (permalink)
The Squadron Ep 2: Check
The folks at Broken Console have posted Episode 2 of their machinima series, The Squadron. You can grab it in either WMP9 or QuickTime formats at their website - roughly 15 mb, depending on the format. Continues the humor-with-a-storyline they started with episode one - go watch! (Louis Wu 05:04:51 UTC) (permalink)
Mister Chief's on vacation
The most recent Weekly What's Update over at Bungie.net is pretty short... but it looks at changes to be made in the next month or so to the XBL playlists. Some good stuff coming up - multiball, baby! Go read. (Louis Wu 04:56:42 UTC) (permalink)
News August 12 2005
Some Kind Of Java Game?
Today's One One Se7en takes a poke (geddit? Poke?... eh.) at the whole Hot Coffee controversy swirling around the videogame industry at the moment. I'm so embarrassed. (Louis Wu 16:57:45 UTC) (permalink)
Friday's Fan Fic
Eep - been a little while since the Fan Fiction section was updated - there are 11 new pieces for you there (including the latest chapter in what I think is the longest-running serial fanfic on our site - the first installment was posted more than 31 months ago). Go read! (Louis Wu 16:47:08 UTC) (permalink)
A Tale of Two Countries
Arcadian Flame, of Chairleg Productions, has put together A Tale of Two Countries - an attempt to highlight some of the differences between the UK and the US. Chairleg uses (appropriately for this site) the Halo engine in this display. The Movie Peer Review Rating System passed this by a wide margin. You can grab a copy in WMP9 format (29.8 mb) or QuickTime format (27.1 mb) - and laugh all the way to the pub... er, I mean, the bar. (Louis Wu 16:36:56 UTC) (permalink)
Over-Rated Games
Another Games.net article - Ten Hugely Over-rated Games. (Neither this one, nor the FPS Weapons article we mentioned earlier, are new - this one was posted in late May, and the weapon article was posted in June. They're simply new to this site.) Halo is rated #8 - ironic, since the same author believes its primary multiplayer weapon is the most kickass FPS weapon out there... Thanks once again, 3Suns (who also points out some well-thought-out comments on this article at GameTab). (Louis Wu 14:24:53 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Philly Postmortem
MLGPro.com has posted an interview with Team 3D, the dominant force in professional Halo this year (well, up until MLG Philly, where they were taken down by Str8 Rippin). They talk about their loss in Philly, and why it happened. It's an interesting read - 3D never comes out and says 'yep, they played better than us', there's a lot of talk of 'they set the pace of the game, which is different than what we're used to, we should have stepped it up' and 'the gametypes were flawed, because they got the power weapon and we were stuck'. It'll be interesting to see if Str8 Rippin can stay on top - if they do, 3D is going to have to come up with new reasons why. Thanks again, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 14:14:03 UTC) (permalink)
Illinois Halo 2 Tourney
Jason writes to point out the Eastview Halofest IV, a 4v4 Halo 2 tourney to be held at the Eastview Christian Church, in Bloomington/Normal, IL on September 23rd. Registraiton is $10 per person, prizes to be awarded to the top team and the top FFA players. You must be 18 to enter. More details (and a signup sheet) can be found on the website. (Louis Wu 13:56:11 UTC) (permalink)
Pound for pound?
Games.net has written up a piece on 'The Most Kickass FPS Guns Ever' - and Halo showed pretty well. Halo 2's Energy Sword made #8... and Halo's original M6D pistol received the top honors - #1! Intriguing reasoning. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 13:42:30 UTC) (permalink)
The Eric Heiden Effect?
BattleAngel points out a Halo skin for CounterStrike for... plumper Master Chiefs. The guy could definitely use some thigh reductions. (Louis Wu 13:05:51 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Home Shopping
New strip over at Halo Babies today... you'd think a soldier would have better control of his weapons. Then again, maybe that's just because he's the BABY MC... (Louis Wu 12:47:12 UTC) (permalink)
Fan-made RvB Season 4 Posters
Hawaiian Pig is back in the RvB Movie Poster business - he's made a few different versions in honor of the upcoming start of Season 4. His first try was in this post - then he messed with fonts to get the image in this post... and finally offered up the image in this post. I've added local alternate links to all three posts; if his bandwidth gets out of control, and he pulls the originals, the alternates will continue to work. (Louis Wu 12:42:22 UTC) (permalink)
News August 11 2005
Lightbearer's XBL Tourney Saturday
Father Hartley writes with news of another Lightbearers Tournament - the tourney will take place on Xbox Live on the 13th (that's this Saturday), and will be a 2v2 skirmish event (CTF, Assault, Oddball, KOTH, the works). They're only accepting 2 man teams, but there's a place on their forum to find a partner if you don't have one. Go sign up! (Louis Wu 20:31:54 UTC) (permalink)
Imto - Death Strike
Must be the day of women Halo artists, or something. I was digging around DeviantART, and I found a great image of an elite, colored by Tina Leyk. The original artwork, with a gorgeous double energy sword, was drawn by her friend callyfin - and callyfin did her own colored version... but then offered the inked (black and white) version to anyone who wanted to color it. Tina's interpretation is stunning. We've added this image (in both flavors, the original and Tina's recolored version) to her local Halo art page. Check it out! (Louis Wu 19:53:37 UTC) (permalink)
Things I Learned While Playing Halo 2 (Ep 2-Redux)
A few days ago, we mentioned a video available at halo2forum - it was created by Xpl0d3r, of Clan HollywoodHalo, and it looked at some lessons than can be gleaned from playing Halo 2. (Well... sort of.) He submitted it to the MPRRS, and the reviewing crew liked it - so we're making it available here, as well. You can grab a QuickTime version (32.3 mb), or a WMP9 version (34.6 mb). Remember: When you can't find a deal - make one. (Louis Wu 17:35:37 UTC) (permalink)
Pinkuh - A Halo Lover with Art Skillz
Over the past few months, a community member named Kelli Washburn (but better known as Pinkuh) has released various bits of Halo-related fan art, generally to thunderous applause. There's enough of it these days that it deserves its own page... so that's what it's got, now. If you haven't seen this stuff before, take a good look; she's great at what she does, and she loves Halo. (Louis Wu 03:20:43 UTC) (permalink)
Return of the Seeker
Thanks to Deimos, the Seeker is back - sort of. Its spidering capabilities are offline, so new content can't be added... but the existing database is pretty substantial, and searching is fine. (In a couple of weeks, spidering will come back, too.) We've re-added the link to the sidebar. Enjoy! (Louis Wu 03:19:57 UTC) (permalink)
News August 10 2005
Taste-making power
CNN has an article about video game music - it uses Video Games Live (the live concert tour) as a jumping-off place, but touches on the advances video game music has made over the years. Halo gets a mention, of course, since the Halo 2 soundtrack has sold 100,000 copies. Thanks, ICDedPpl. (Louis Wu 20:51:45 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Team Zulu Episode 1
Midnight Carnage submitted a video called Spartan Team Zulu, the opening episode of a machinima series based on Relic. The MPRRS liked it, overall. The intro's pretty good, but really - hopefully, like the RvB intro, it'll be in the first episode and no others. It's available in WMP9 format (26.8 mb) or QuickTime format (26.4 mb). Enjoy! (Louis Wu 20:24:02 UTC) (permalink)
Start, Y, Left, (etc)
On a happier note, we finally have today's One One Se7en online for you to read. I didn't get the joke, at first, because I didn't recognize the guy. Stuntmutt, I guess, thought I was kidding when I told him that, because he didn't clarify. This requires me to admit to you that I own no Eminem albums, and have never seen 8 Mile. Sorry. (Louis Wu 20:18:46 UTC) (permalink)
Don't drink the Koolaid.
I'm not going to comment much, past pointing you to the info: Jordan R put a note on our forum pointing to an 80-minute interview that ChatterBox ("Video Game Radio") held with Jack Thompson - it's an amazing listen. Have you ever shouted "OMGWTF!?" at the radio? I have, now. (Louis Wu 20:15:07 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader Weekly Update
XerxdeeJ posted his weekly Tied the Leader update on our forum - there's a reader poll asking for the cleverest in-game taunt, a look at a potential wedding ring (congrats, btw, XerxdeeJ!), a reader poll looking for reasons why Halo is as popular as it is, and semantic study of onomatopoeic utterances, among other things. Go check it out! (Louis Wu 19:51:02 UTC) (permalink)
GamersHell looks at the MMP
GamersHell has written a review of the Multiplayer Map Pack - "the perfect addo-on for multiplayer Halo 2 fans." Give it a read! (Louis Wu 19:40:30 UTC) (permalink)
Microsoft Games Survey
Microsoft Game Studios is looking for your feedback about the Multiplayer map pack - visit this survey and fill it out by August 17. Thanks, Cybrfrk. (Louis Wu 19:24:14 UTC) (permalink)
Hi Ben - Found
Last week, Frankie said that if nobody found the Hi Ben egg in Halo by this Friday, he'd reveal the details. krakho pointed out that over on the Bungie.net forums, M0N3y 5H07 laid out how to find the egg, on the level Regret. (There are screenshots in that thread, if you want to hunt for them.) AlucardX posted a note on the HIH forum pointing to the description, and Reidon made a video showing where, exactly, to find it. I hate Putfile with a passion, so I've posted the 3.5 mb WMP9 vid (and a 3.8 mb Quicktime version) on our servers. Again: M0N3y 5H07 found the egg, Reidon made this vid showing how to find it. Congrats to everyone! (Louis Wu 16:01:15 UTC) (permalink)
There are a LOT of us.
Whee - looks like The Art of Halo is selling nicely - Eric Trautmann mentioned on his blog that he received his first royalty check from Del Ray, and he thanks the Halo fans who bought this game. Nice! (Thanks to Rampancy.net for noticing so quickly.) (Louis Wu 15:51:12 UTC) (permalink)
I don't know where to begin.
Black Six wrote to let us know that today's Mac Hall (guest-drawn by Jamie Noguchi, whose Angry Zen Master comic we mentioned a couple of months ago) has some pretty cool Halo content in it. (The beginning of that story arc started a few comics ago - you might want to look there first.) w00t! (The topic itself is so chock-full of geek-goodness, I'm having trouble cataloguing it all.) (Louis Wu 15:02:48 UTC) (permalink)
Halomachinima.com adds lots of content
Funkmon points out that he's now helping out at halomachinima.com - and that he's mirrored all season 1 episodes of the Halo CE Chronicles there. (Some people have trouble with the HCEC downloading mechanism; this is a bit more straightforward.) He's also added tons of older movies - poke around and see what you find! (Louis Wu 14:56:44 UTC) (permalink)
MLG Philly, Part 2
MLGPro.com has posted Part 2 of their MLG Philly writeup - Dyslexia takes a look at the Halo 1 play. Great fun! Thanks, 3Suns. (There are also over 300 pics from the event, in their gallery.) (Louis Wu 14:54:07 UTC) (permalink)
How come his eyes are orange in every pic?
SketchFactor and Frankie wrote up a fascinating piece on Bungie's experiences at G-Phoria, the awards ceremony that showed on G4TV last night. (It was recorded a couple of weeks ago, and we announced the results then - it was just that it didn't make it onto television until yesterday.) There's also a page full of pictures, some of which should make you go 'hmmmm'. Thanks to Frankie for being Frist. (Louis Wu 14:39:55 UTC) (permalink)
halo2forum vids
Z sends word of a couple of new vids available at halo2forum.com - Ripoff's Montage can be found here (warning, this one might bug some people - 3 minutes of the 7 minute film are intro and final credits, and the rest is super-fast cuts, heavy on the editing, hard to tell what's going on); WMP9 format, 69.3 mb... and Croyt's Anger is basically the back of Croyt's head as he plays Halo 2 - and curses up a storm at the TV. This one is 4:23 long (it gets old after a minute or so), WMP9 format, 55.3 mb. Update: Z's also posted a 14-minute 2v2 gameplay vid - Arpus and wyteChocolate vs Fonzi (from Str8 Rippin) and IGN Shockwave. 111 mb, WMP9 format. Top-notch slayer action on Lockout. (Louis Wu 13:47:59 UTC) (permalink)
News August 9 2005
Interview with a Star: AnubisUK
Nirvana pointed out a new feature running on his website - he calls it 'Interview with a Star'. The first installment is an interview with AnubisUK, one of the team behind Broken Console Productions, whose ongoing project is The Squadron. Give it a read to see where Anubis gets his inspiration, and what he feels is good - and bad - about Halo movie making! (Louis Wu 20:53:39 UTC) (permalink)
Make ME a sandwich!
Captain Spark dropped off another 27 dialogue snippets - you can grab them from his site, or browse them in our Dialogue Databank. Some funny ones in there! (Louis Wu 16:36:57 UTC) (permalink)
Spawn Man
Okinawa Productions put together a music video called Spawn Man, a video about a spawnkiller, and the player who gets revenge on the tactic, set to Soundgarden's 'Spoon Man' (which fits pretty nicely, surprisingly). Fantastic quality, great timing, great cinematics. A low-res version of this vid passed the Movie Peer Review Rating System - the high-res version is even better. Snag it in WMP9 format (67.6 mb) or QuickTime format (54.9 mb). I've gotta say - the 'Halo music video' genre is really maturing... (Louis Wu 15:30:30 UTC) (permalink)
Postgame Persiflage
The J Nice writes to say that WannaPartyUp.com, a site we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, has added a few dozen new clips, and the ability to rate clips (just click on the number of stars you want to give the clip). (Louis Wu 15:19:28 UTC) (permalink)
Legomania
It's been a few months since we last mentioned Saber-Scorpion's Halo-based Lego stuff... but he hasn't been idle. xyc0n noticed a bunch of new minifigs at Brickshelf - check 'em out! (To be fair, Bungie's agdTinMan pointed out one of them on a random blog last week, but I never got around to front-paging it.) (Louis Wu 15:09:46 UTC) (permalink)
Montages - and high-end gameplay
Lots and lots of movies over at halo2forum.com (which sports a new design, to boot) - Vrbas' Trailer for Montage 4 and S3X0RC1ST's Montage 2 can be downloaded from this thread (both WMP9 formats, 24.6 mb and 104 mb respectively), and a pair of games with top pro players (both in the same vid, WMP9 format, 113 mb) can be snagged from this thread. Good stuff! (Louis Wu 15:04:02 UTC) (permalink)
He should sing 'Blow me away' or something.
For the last couple of months, Aaron Walpole, brother of Bungie Cananimator Nathan Walpole (better known around these parts as bentllama), has been working his way up the ranks in Canadian Idol, a Canadian version of American Idol. (bentllama first let our forum know about this in June.) We haven't mentioned it because... well, because there's no real Halo tie-in there. However, 1Up just posted a story about it - and did their best to force a Halo tie-in, so we're piggy-backing. (Aaron is now in the top 7 - and still going strong. If you want to hear how he sings, check this blog entry.) For the record - I think it's pretty danged cool, and hope he goes all the way. (Louis Wu 14:23:56 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular Ep 3
Podtacular!, the Halo 2 podcast we mentioned last week, has a new episode up - 21.4 mb, 46 minutes long, covers a variety of subjects, including general tips, specific level strategies, and more. Go listen. (We heard from a couple of people about this - Donaff Baz was first.) (Louis Wu 14:11:07 UTC) (permalink)
Spartan Comics
AJay points out SpartanComics over at MySpace, a series of well-done Halo-based comics. (To be fair - Shooty Guy pointed this out last month, but initially there was some unpleasantness about what ELSE was linked from the page Shooty Guy was pointing to, so I passed on it - and by the time it got fixed, I'd forgotten that it hadn't been front-paged.) In any case, go read now! (Louis Wu 13:54:00 UTC) (permalink)
News August 8 2005
Halo in Afghanistan
Interesting - according to Stars and Stripes, Halo 2 is the most popular game at Forward Operating Base Lagman, home of the 2nd Battalion, 503rd Infantry Regiment, in Khandahar, Afghanistan. The local exchange is selling controllers "like wildfire" - partly because so many people are playing, and partly because the fine grit in the air is really hard on controllers. Yet another hazard of war... (Louis Wu 21:22:03 UTC) (permalink)
Go Get Goodies Now
Don't have enough Bungie schwag? Go visit the Bungie Store - there are lots of new goodies, from t-shirts to posters to action figures. Read about it on B.net. Thanks to Cybrfrk, whose email was noticed before the RSS feed was. (Louis Wu 20:58:01 UTC) (permalink)
Happy Go Lucky
Three up, three out... a third offering to make it through the MPRRS last night was a video called 'Happy Go Lucky', put together by Ryan Stevens, Ashley Akers, and Nathan Stuart. In Ryan's words, "an elite wakes up in the morning and goes to the store, but nothing is as it seems." It's pretty inventive in the overall presentation - I'm looking forward to more from this team! You can grab a copy in WMP9 format (35.7 mb) or QuickTime format (33.7 mb). (Louis Wu 16:13:40 UTC) (permalink)
Ninjas on Halo
Halo shows up in the strangest of places... wheeler found a piece of fan art for a game called 'N' - it's a "minimalist Lode-Runner-esque puzzle platformer", with a stick-figure ninja as the main character. Visit their downloads page, you'll find dozens of fan-created images putting N in a variety of settings... including the level Halo. Oddness. (Louis Wu 16:08:59 UTC) (permalink)
RvB Season 4 kickoff just weeks away
As we mentioned a couple of weeks ago, Red vs Blue will be premiering the Season 3 DVD at Lincoln Center on August 21 - and they'll be showing it again at the Penny Arcade Expo, in Seattle, on August 26. In a recent post on the Red vs Blue website, Burnie suggested that visitors to these events might get a sneak preview of Season 4, which is set to debut the following week, on August 29. Looking forward to it! (Thanks to Chris Ramirez for reminding us.) (Louis Wu 15:49:58 UTC) (permalink)
Deep Insertion.
We've never needed to put an ESRB-style warning on One One Se7en before... but maybe a POBE1 warning would be more appropriate. Yeah. I had nothing to do with this one. Yeah.
1. Pissed Off Bungie Employee (Louis Wu 15:06:01 UTC) (permalink)
MikeMan27 and Nefarious Dan Return: The Trailer
Video number two for the day - this is a teaser trailer for a montage video coming out soon, from Mikeman27 and Nefarious Dan. It was released on our forum last week, but got minimal feedback... so they submitted it to the MPRRS, where it passed. The large frame around the content is actually there on purpose; it's an attempt to keep you from full-screening the vid. (Mike assures me that the final vid will be of higher quality, and won't need this limitation.) Timing's quite good, action is suitably frenzied. 13 mb, in WMP9 or QuickTime formats. (Louis Wu 14:48:15 UTC) (permalink)
The Fall of Reach Trailer
A number of movies have passed our own Movie Peer Review Rating Service recently; the first is quite small (1:50, just over 5 mb, in both QuickTime and WMP9 formats) - it's a trailer for an upcoming 8-episode machinima based on the novel The Fall of Reach. The project is coming from a British Clan, and their website contains more info about the project (including a call for voice work). The video itself is predominantly cutscene footage, from both Halo and Halo 2, with some nice timing and coordination. Check it out!
HaloZination
We got a note from Gene, a member of HaloZination, a German Halo 2 clan which has been working on a machinima series - there are currently three episodes, downloadable from their website. They're all in WMP9 format, and range from 45 to 75 mb apiece. Without understanding German, this one makes very little sense... but we haven't heard of a lot of projects that aren't in English, so if you DO speak German, give this one a look! (Louis Wu 12:54:15 UTC) (permalink)
News August 7 2005
More Machinima Coverage
Anton P. Nym found, over at the Escapist, an article on machinima, as well - and again, Red vs Blue is held up as an example of how to do it right (along with Randy Glass, and his latest (non-Halo) work) - but mostly, the author laments the huge amount of mediocre work available on the net, and suggests that if the RIAA gets involved, at least the number of "just-plain-crappy videos" (his words, not mine) would decrease. Eh. (I was also unhappy that many of the example links at the end of the article were dead ends.) (Louis Wu 14:08:18 UTC) (permalink)
NYT Machinima piece - now online
The New York Times article we mentioned yesterday is online now (free registration required, or visit bugmenot.com for a username). NB was right - it's a great article. It focuses pretty heavily on Red vs Blue, while looking at the field of machinima in general - go read this! (Louis Wu 13:59:25 UTC) (permalink)
225 MB to grab at H2F
Over at Halo2Forum.com, there are three new movies to grab - P3MBY made a second montage (QuickTime format, 117 mb) - lots and lots and LOTS of sticks. On the same page, you'll find a link for KwicK's Montage (WMP9 format, 50.7 mb) - P3MBY is a member of the same team (xT Minnesota) as KwicK. And then, in this thread, you can find a link for Xpl0d3r's 'Things I Learned While Playing Halo 2' (WMP9 format, 62.6 mb) - I think it boils down to 'don't be stupid', but I'm not sure. That's a lot of bytes to download! (Louis Wu 13:38:16 UTC) (permalink)
Net Reviews
A couple of net reviews out there for you - Xbox World Australia has given the Multiplayer Map Pack a once-over (they liked it, but would have appreciated some single-player love), and Gaming Horizon has pinned down Halo 2 (yeah, the game, not the map pack) - if you've read any of the hundreds of reviews that were published a few months ago, you've seen their gripes before (and their kudos, too). But there it is. (Louis Wu 13:15:32 UTC) (permalink)
Sunday Morning Reading
Fan Fiction writers must be focusing on the 117 Words contest - in the last 5 days, there've only been 8 new submissions. Go read! (Louis Wu 13:05:01 UTC) (permalink)
News August 6 2005
RvB in NYT
NB writes to say that on page 20 of today's New York Times Magazine is an article about machinima and Red vs Blue. I couldn't find it online yet - probably will show up tomorrow, since the Magazine section is part of Sunday's paper, even though you can buy it on Saturday - but it sounds like it's worth reading! (Louis Wu 19:59:05 UTC) (permalink)
Seeker Vanishes
As you may or may not have noticed, the Seeker link we had on the right side of this page is gone. It turned out to be more resource-intensive than Subnova could handle (a full explanation is here). If the situation changes, we'll be sure to let you know! (Louis Wu 13:29:53 UTC) (permalink)
The Codex Series Ep 19: Power Plays
The Codex Series, Episode 19, is now online - 'Power Plays' is the second-to-last episode, and has some great scenes in it. Great action, nice suspense... go watch! The final scene will be posted at 7 PM Central time (that's midnight, UTC) next Friday night... they want as many people online as they can get. Go watch this episode and start building your anticipation! (Louis Wu 12:48:25 UTC) (permalink)
Rockets on Prisoner
That Weasel dropped a note letting us know that the Third Annual Rockets on Prisoner Awards has officially kicked off. There are 9 video categories and seven sub-categories - and the public is encouraged to participate by nominating videos of their choice. (Each person gets 1 nomination per day for the next 7 days - so be sure to keep going back.) Voting begins on August 17, but there should be plenty of interesting stuff between now and then. Check it out! (Louis Wu 12:14:17 UTC) (permalink)
I Da Man I talks to Bytesector
Bytesector has posted an interview with the 2005 Canadian Halo 2 Champion (from the Worldwide Halo tour tourney concluded this past June. Some of his answers threw me for a loop - but overall, it's an interesting read. (Louis Wu 12:00:27 UTC) (permalink)
ZenStats - coming soon!
OperationMEDUSA points a new stats program, currently in beta-test, called ZenStats, being coded by JonathonZenith. (The front-page interface isn't done yet - but the stats themselves are pretty impressive!) Give it a look. (Louis Wu 11:50:10 UTC) (permalink)
Video Gaming: Chasing the Dream
There's a really interesting article over at the Economist, looking at how games have become a major form of entertainment in our society. It touches on the controversy surrounding some games, and explores some of the uses that games can have. (It also points out, in a stark graph, the inverse trends in the US in the past 10 years - as video game sales have increased, violent crime has decreased; while there's not necessarily any correlation between these two, the graph should help illustrate that it's it's harder to argue that video games create violent monsters.) Halo 2 is held up as a prime example of the new complexity in games (both technically and intellectually) - if you're keeping track, you'll find story spoilers here. Overall, it's a piece that suggests that the current controversy is simply a matter of folks who grew up without games not 'getting it', and once 'the young are old, and the old are dead', we'll move on to fighting about something else. Wonderful to see pieces like this in magazines like the Economist. Several people sent us a link, but it looks like DPowers90, on our forum, was first. (Louis Wu 11:44:23 UTC) (permalink)
Don't be a jerk.
Yeah, that's the lesson in the most recent Weekly What's Update, posted over at Bungie.net. Pretty simple, eh? Looks like there are still lots of people who don't understand what that means. Oh - and if nobody solves the 'Hi, Ben' thing by next week, Frankie says he'll spill the beans. Get to work - you want to EARN this, don't you? And on a pretty sad front, it looks like Shishka's last day at Bungie is now over. We'll miss you, Shishka! Go read. (There was supposed to be hints of The Next Big Thing, but that was just a tease.) (Louis Wu 02:13:20 UTC) (permalink)
News August 5 2005
HCEC 14: Searching
The Halo CE Chronicles episode 14, 'Searching', has been released - a description of the episode can be found on the website, and the video is available for download in WMP9 (24.5 mb), QuickTime (22.6 mb), and streaming Flash (9.3 mb) formats. This one reveals some of the motivation driving the Station Commander, and sets the stage for some action-filled episodes - check it out! (Louis Wu 16:16:55 UTC) (permalink)
Dumb-bledore.
My kids and I have been going through the newest Harry Potter novel in the evenings - I think Stuntmutt may have permanently scarred me with today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 14:43:29 UTC) (permalink)
Incoming - again
Samir Patel pointed out Incoming, a mod for Half-Life 2. (It was a mod for Half-Life first, and we mentioned it about 3 years ago.) It's not a Halo mod - but it DOES 'feature elements from [Halo] as a token of appreciation' (specifically the Warthog and the Spartan armor). Go check it out. (Louis Wu 14:40:57 UTC) (permalink)
Blurry
imSuck created a new music video, using the Halo 2 engine, for the song 'Blurry' by Puddle of Mudd. Video quality is really high, and cinematography is far from the madding crowd. One reviewer for the Movie Peer Review Rating System wrote that "this should be the quintessential piece that wannabes watch." (I'm not sure I'd go that far - but it is pretty dang well-done.) Grab it in either WMP9 format (52.2 mb) or QuickTime format (53.1 mb). (Louis Wu 14:17:48 UTC) (permalink)
Baby Love
Halo Babies has a new strip up today (of course they do - it's Friday)... but they also have a new contest: come up with a Red vs Blue-themed plot for a Halo Babies strip, you could win a copy of the Red vs Blue Season 3 DVD. Nice! (For those keeping track, 'A Changing of Hats' contains minor Halo 2 spoilers.) Hey, and while you're there... there's another Humpday-like writeup for a clan match between HaloBabies and the Mob of Angry Peasants. (Louis Wu 13:37:20 UTC) (permalink)
News August 4 2005
On top of the world
Dyslexia sat down with Str8 Rippin after their win in Philly - read the interview over at MLGPro.com. Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 21:46:51 UTC) (permalink)
Metroid Online needs a new logo
Seraphim writes that the Metroid Online Mapping Team is hosting a new logo contest - winner will get his/her alias stamped on the bottom of Samus' boot. You've got a bit under 2 weeks - results can be posted on their forum. (Louis Wu 19:55:58 UTC) (permalink)
Tennessee Tourneys
Dicehead Games in Cleveland, Tennessee will be hosting 2v2 tourneys (August 11 and 25), $5/person to get in. Their website includes driving directions. Thanks, Sir Wilshire. (Louis Wu 19:55:29 UTC) (permalink)
Halo2D Physics Demo
Ajay points out that he's put together a physics demo for the physics engine he'll be using for Halo2D, a project he's been working on. A screenshot can be seen here, and the demo can be downloaded here (4.9 mb). Hold down the left mouse button to move the MC. (Louis Wu 19:51:30 UTC) (permalink)
Halo Boy Scout Patches
Zeke points out an auction on eBay for a patch from the Boy Scouts National Jamboree this year (4 days left, currently at $42) - and in a second post, shows an alternate version. Interesting use of the Master Chief! (Louis Wu 18:42:19 UTC) (permalink)
Popularity Contests between Fictional Characters
In an effort to stem the flood of email, I'm mentioning the GameFAQS Character Battle IV - today, they're asking you to vote for Master Chief vs CATS, from All Your Base. Later on, the winner will be up against a number of other competitors; I really, really doubt we'll mention this again, so if you're interested in the Character Battle, KEEP TRACK OF IT. Folks who send us email about future matchups (assuming MC wins today, which seems likely) will be sent a link to this news post. Thanks. (Louis Wu 18:39:50 UTC) (permalink)
Max Shooter - Keyboard/Mouse adapter for Xbox
TeamXbox has put up a review of the Max Shooter, another Keyboard/Mouse adapter for your Xbox. They loved it, especially for Halo 2 - they felt it was the best adapter on the market at this point. If you're looking for a way to improve your accuracy (for only $20, as compared to a $30 pricetag for the SmartJoy FRAG or the MagicBox XFPS), take a look at this! (Downside - of course - is that you have to have space for a keyboard and mouse in front of the screen you play Halo on.) Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 11:44:55 UTC) (permalink)
Halo2: Combat Evolved v1.25
Anton Ferraro pointed us to a thread on the MLG forum (registration required to see it) about a newly-released mod for Halo 2 - it's an attempt to recreate Halo on the Halo 2 engine (gameplay-wise). Auto-aim removed, pistol is back to a 4-shot kill, rockets don't lock, field of view is expanded, and so on. There's a video showing gameplay on Lockout - it's mostly a pistol battle, but there are a couple of telling segments with a sniper rifle (it seems like it's really, really hard to hit with now). Clearly, you can't play on XBL with this unless you're willing to be banned from Matchmaking - but it's interesting that there's now an alternative for folks who want to play Halo 2, but are unhappy with the changes made to the gameplay since the first game. (Louis Wu 11:32:44 UTC) (permalink)
Podtacular!
Foo Mo dropped us a note about Podtacular, a Halo 2 podcast focused on gameplay. They're up to Episode 2 (the project started a week ago) - they cover strategy, map-specific tips, and the like. (Episode 2 starts out with a discussion about Major League Gaming, and how the hosts don't really know anything about the pro gaming scene - sort of odd.) Go listen! (Louis Wu 11:11:03 UTC) (permalink)
News August 3 2005
The End of a Streak
Part 1 of Dyslexia's MLG Philly writeup is now online - and all the way through it, I was thinking, MAN, those guys think more about this game than I do. (Which is why I lose regularly, I suppose... but geez.) Fantastic writeup - makes me wish I'd been there to see the matches in person. Go read! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 23:16:16 UTC) (permalink)
Willie and the Poor Boys
FireMedic41 wrote an interesting little piece over at GeezerGamers - why do we keep coming back to Halo? It's a good question. Go see what he thinks. (Louis Wu 22:44:39 UTC) (permalink)
Playing with friends - or enemies
More regional tourney/LAN action: there's a 2v2 tourney (no rules or prize listings yet, but entry is $5) on August 20 in Nashville, TN, and there's a weekly LAN party in New York City ($20 admission), hosted by NYCLAN - thanks, Bonnie. Update: Scott points out an online tourney this weekend, 4v4, MLG-style, $8/person to sign up. They're coming out of the woodwork! (Louis Wu 21:27:53 UTC) (permalink)
Ohio Tourney, August 6
Scooter Vieth put up a note about a 4v4 tourney in Cincinnati this weekend - $25 per person to get in ($30 at the door), $1000 on the table in cash and prizes. Check out the info on the Game Junkie web page. (Louis Wu 14:40:17 UTC) (permalink)
Just For Ekelon.
You know he's hard up for material when Stuntmutt starts making inside clan jokes in his One One Se7en entries. Oh, wait... he's been doing that for a while. (Louis Wu 13:56:06 UTC) (permalink)
Short Wednesday Reading List
Just clearing out the Fan Fiction queue - only four stories this time around. Summer lull? (Louis Wu 13:53:58 UTC) (permalink)
Toy Soldiers Trailer Redux
A couple of days ago, we mentioned PumaHog's Toy Soldiers trailer - they've since submitted it to the Movie Peer Review Rating System, and passed. If you haven't seen it, we're now hosting copies - QuickTime (18.4 mb) or WMP9 (18.9 mb). Go watch! (Louis Wu 12:29:44 UTC) (permalink)
Halo: Pramape 343GS
Hehe - go check out this parody of the Halo level 343 Guilty Spark, done by ClassParody, over at Newgrounds. (Flash, 1.8 mb) Pretty funny stuff! Thanks, Samir Patel. (Louis Wu 01:58:53 UTC) (permalink)
News August 2 2005
This Spartan Life on G4TV
Looks like Damien Lacedaemion, of This Spartan Life, will be interviewed this evening on G4TV's "Attack of the Show" at 7 pm EST. Go watch! (Louis Wu 19:16:33 UTC) (permalink)
Another Halo Tab
Over on the Power Tab Archive, Shadowsniper689 found a guitar tab for a Halo theme that wasn't used in the game (but is available on Bungie.net). I can't read .ptb files, and there's no link to the original, so your guess is as good as mine - but if you're looking for tabbed Halo music, you can add this to your collection. Update: Billy clarifies which piece we're talking about. Thanks, Billy! (Louis Wu 19:14:06 UTC) (permalink)
2old2type Ep 6 out
2old2play has released 2old2type Episode 6, their newest installment of their podcasted commentary. Discussion of game addiction, among other topics... available for direct download (off archive.org) or via BitTorrent - about an hour, 30 mb, MP3 format. (Louis Wu 18:29:45 UTC) (permalink)
Tied the Leader update
XerxDeeJ has posted another summary of new articles on his Tied the Leader blog - there's a reader poll asking what you'll move on to after Halo, some musing on trash talk (inspired by a thread on our forum last week), and a Top Ten list that might hit home. (Louis Wu 16:33:24 UTC) (permalink)
They've grown - spiritually.
Marty O'Donnell and Jay Weinland, Halo sound gurus, and SketchFactor and Frankie, community gurus, were interviewed by IGN while at the GPhoria Awards ceremony last week. Questions like 'how do you feel creating a game that everybody kicks your ass at?' and 'Where's the Hot Coffee in Halo?' should give you a sense for how this one went. Streaming 320x180 for the masses (9.7 - 21.1 mb), downloadable 640x360 (21.4 - 40.5 mb) for IGN Insiders. Thanks to mejp44 for noticing. (Louis Wu 14:50:15 UTC) (permalink)
SMGs For Sale
GAH! This came in a couple of nights ago - I lost it in the rush of mail. Richie's Armor has created a pair of resin-cast SMGs, for sale on eBay - starting bid is just under $150, there are still 5 days left on the auction. They look great - check 'em out! (Louis Wu 13:17:42 UTC) (permalink)
Master Chief, in Frosting
OS eco419 whipped up a delicious-looking Halo 2 cake, and shared it with our forum. Mmmmm... (Louis Wu 13:07:49 UTC) (permalink)
Rallying The Troops
The Codex Series Episode 18, 'Rallying The Troops', has been released - I think one of the scriptwriters has been watching Independence Day. It's a nicely inspirational episode, and the troop rally is wonderfully filmed. Currently available only in QuickTime (about 86 mb), but WMP9 coming today - go download! Thanks to many - first was FxH Spartan II. (Louis Wu 12:47:06 UTC) (permalink)
Scottish LAN
thescottishguy writes to point out a 2-day LAN in Scotland, August 19th and 20th; entry is £5 for Friday, £10 for Saturday, with £1500 on the line for prizes. (Preregistration is available.) The only thing I can't find any info about (either in the email he sent, or anywhere on his website), is WHERE this is being held - but then, Scotland isn't that big of a country, so maybe you'll find it. (Louis Wu 12:33:27 UTC) (permalink)
Str8 Rippin Takes Philly Crown
MLG posted a short article summarizing the final games between Str8 Rippin and Team 3D... congrats to Str8 Rippin for taking the MLG Philly title! Thanks, 3Suns. (Louis Wu 12:26:14 UTC) (permalink)
PSP Articles
More articles formatted for your PSP are available at Mintz's site - check the 'New Articles' section near the top. MLG Editor's Corner, MLG Philly preview, July 29th WWU. (Louis Wu 12:23:35 UTC) (permalink)
News August 1 2005
The Retail Game
Wow. If you're a gamer (at least in the US, but likely this stuff holds true worldwide), you owe it to yourself to read this series of articles. Not specifically Halo-related... but definitely eye-opening. Thanks, Deanero. (Louis Wu 21:06:07 UTC) (permalink)
This Spartan Life: Body Count
After some server downtime, This Spartan Life is back with Body Count. Environmental debate - with guns. Man... if more debates were conducted this way, at the very least we'd have fewer windbags to listen to! Funny stuff. QuickTime format, 20.8 mb. (Louis Wu 20:47:54 UTC) (permalink)
Stream of consciousness, indeed.
Amir wanted to point out his blogged review of Halo vs Halo 2 - the more you read, the more you'll see how conflicted he really is. ("I like Halo 2 better - but man, I hated X. And Y. And god, Z was AWFUL! And A, B, and C about Halo really rocked. But I like Halo 2 better." etc) (Louis Wu 20:44:01 UTC) (permalink)
PSP-compatible content at halomachinima.com
trigger119 had to leave for a while - but he's put up a bunch of content on halomachinima.com that might interest you:
- WMP9 and PSP-compatible versions of Bunker27Goose's Used Car Salesmen, a Real Men of Genius spoof
- Outpost Coagulation, for PSP (as well as WMP9 and QT, which were always there)
- Stryke Force for PSP
Go look! (Louis Wu 20:37:56 UTC) (permalink)
Big Bawls LAN
This weekend (GT)Juggler hosted a lanfest about 40 miles from here. I couldn't make it - which saddens me, because according to KP, it was a lot of fun. Juggler just posted a bunch of pics - take a look! (Louis Wu 18:25:26 UTC) (permalink)
Off The Shelf.
Stuntmutt must have been driving with KP recently - check out today's One One Se7en. (Louis Wu 14:50:15 UTC) (permalink)
You're Fired
Cybrfrk found a short film over at Machinima.com, entitled 'You're Fired'. According to the film itself, it was made by the Sponsors vs Freeloaders team, but it's credited to Panda Productions on the Machinima.com page. In any case, it's what happens when Sims 2 and Halo come together in a film... Update: Just got mail from Amanda Stanley, the brains behind Panda Productions - it seems she's engaged to Sevenar, from SvF (congrats, both of you!), which explains the co-working. It's her film, though. (Louis Wu 14:16:57 UTC) (permalink)
Monday Reading
Just six pieces for you today in the Fan Fiction section - go give 'em a read! (Louis Wu 13:59:36 UTC) (permalink)
CPL Summer Event footage at GT
3Suns points out some CPL footage available at Gametrailers.com - there's a general clip (with a small amount of Halo footage) and a Halo-specific clip, both from the CPL Summer Event which took place about a month ago in Dallas. Team 3D and Team Exigen (first and second place winners, respectively) talk a little bit about what helped and what didn't. (Louis Wu 13:49:26 UTC) (permalink)
DG says hold off a few weeks
Daily Game has reviewed the Multiplayer Map Pack - and found it wanting. "Plenty of fun, but you're better off waiting for them to become freebies." Read the whole review for details. (Hehe - they can say this - they're PLAYING the maps right now.) (Louis Wu 11:20:29 UTC) (permalink)
Halo vs Halo 2 - again
[HC]D-Man found a 3-page editorial in the July issue of a magazine called GVGames - it can be downloaded in PDF format (the editorial begins on page 41), or read online. There's nothing really new here - it's a not-very-professional rant about how Halo 2 sucks and Halo was the best game ever. If you've spent any time on our forum (or any Halo forum, for that matter) - you've heard this rant, sometimes more eloquently put. What intrigues me is that it shows up in this form in a magazine... (Louis Wu 11:17:08 UTC) (permalink)
Dymdez's Montage II
Saturday morning, we got email from Z, at halo2forum.com, that Dymdez's Montage II had been released, along with a request for submission to the Movie Peer Review Rating System. It took about 36 hours for the movie to work through the system - in what might be a first, it didn't receive a single score below passing. Go watch some fantastic montage footage! 44.7 mb, in DivX format. (Louis Wu 10:10:22 UTC) (permalink)
| August 2005 | |
